Myanmar...finally!

I wrote this post just after arriving in Myanmar, but I couldn't get it posted from the hotel.  I know many of you prayed for us daily, and I am so grateful, we definitely felt your prayers!

Myanmar

We arrived today, went through customs, took an interesting ride to our hotel and settled in.  After lunch, Jenn, Tyler and I went for a walk around our hotel.  Wow!  There is so much to take in.  The traffic is crazy, many cars, taxis and buses. (Don't let this car fool you, lane driving is NOT the norm here) Oh, the buses!

 They are often very crowded and all very old.  There is a young man or two who hang off the bus shouting the route the bus is taking and then assessing the waiting crowd for who might want to get on or off the bus.
  It is also very dirty.  Lots of garbage and dirty standing water. Looking around, it is overwhelming to see so much filth and I begin to think my superior American thoughts about how much needs to be done to clean up the place, to make it like America.

 A park near our hotel

 The drainage ditch just outside the park

Who would even want to put that much effort into it?  It is disturbing to think how anyone here could even have hope given the living conditions and prospects for a future.  As the American that I am, I want to fix it, make it all better, but is it really better if an outsider tells you how your country should live?  Last night someone from our team asked a local pastor we partner with, how old Yangon is and he answered that the Buddhists just celebrated the 500th Anniversary of their large pagoda here in Yangon.
 Schwedagon Pagoda

 So the city is OVER 500 YEARS OLD.  With years of oppression by Kings, Westerners, and their own government, its no wonder the place is dirty with broken down sidewalks. If worrying about things like ethnic cleansing, or finding a job or business to feed your family are the first things on your mind, surely you aren't phased by a little garbage on the street.  I realized that the things I think about as a person who has all of her physical needs met and exceed by a grotesque amount, I can't even begin to think like the Burmese people. But there still must be ways to help. Now, I have just 10 days left to learn as much as I can about these people,what their dreams and desires are and how we, as extravagantly blessed Americans can come alongside them or even help from behind.  Please pray for our team as we are here, that we would be open to God's call and direction, that we would follow the Holy Spirit and not try to blaze a trail before Him. That we would be kind, loving and generous to the people here.  And that I would not try to impose my American values and expectations upon a people who are not Americans, but who are a people made in the image of our God, a people who have had a completely different journey than I, a people who God loves with the same passionate, amazing, pursuing love with which He loves me.  I pray that the Burmese people will know that love.  That God would bring a revival into this nation, to its leaders and to all the people.  May many want to love serve and give to this county. 

(Look close to see what is on the back of this bike)